Merry Christmas! Or, Happy Holidays, if you don’t celebrate Christmas. Today, I’m sharing a fun little post – about Christmas cookies! If you’ve been around here much, you know that I really like to bake. I’ve been doing it most of my life and not only do I love eating sweets, but baking is a lot of fun. It’s relaxing for me, and so something I like to do in my free time.

Christmas Cookie Packaging

I always like baking treats around the holidays and in the past would bring them in to share with my office. But, this year, because I work from home now I don’t have any coworkers to help ease my own calorie intake, I decided to make some for family and friends. I made four types of cookies over about two weeks. If you’re going to do a lot of cookies like this I definitely recommend spreading it out. I made a prep list before I started anything and broke it up into smaller tasks I could do quickly. That way if I have a few minutes of free time or wanted a little mental break I could do some prep. And it definitely made things easier. Then I got these treat boxes, this pretty tissue and red ribbon from Target, and the gift tags from Home Goods to package everything up. I just love how festive they are!

Christmas Cookie Recipe Ideas

They’re all very good, but I think the polenta shortbread is my favorite. It’s a refreshing changing of pace that’s not too sweet, bright and citrusy, and has an interesting texture. I followed the recipe almost exactly, except that I halved the amount of powdered sugar in the glaze. Pro tip: if powdered sugar is ever an ingredient I always start with half and work up from there. It’s almost always too sweet for me otherwise.

Because I followed that recipe so closely I thought I’d share a different recipe with you. The Danish Salted Butter Cookies. These are also really delicious (they’re Xan’s favorite!), but were much harder to make, so I thought I’d share the recipe with my changes that make them a little easier. Plus, they would be great year round, not just during the holidays!

Unique Christmas Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) chilled salted butter, cut into pieces

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more

1 cup white sanding sugar

Special Equipment

A 3-inch-diameter and a 1½-inch-diameter fluted cookie cutter

Recipe Preparation

Combine butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl; scrape in vanilla seeds and discard pod. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in 1 egg. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in 2 cups flour. Separate dough into thirds and form each third into a disk about and inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours

Place racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat to 350°. Working with one disk at a time, let disk of dough sit at room temperature until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Use plastic wrap on top of dough to roll out, this will keep the dough from sticking to your rolling pin. Work on a heavily floured sheet of parchment paper, shifting often on sheet and dusting with more flour as needed to keep from sticking, until about ¼" thick

Punch out rounds with large cutter; punch out centers with smaller cutter. Transfer each cookie immediately after it’s been punched to a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing 1½" apart. Pat scraps into a 1"-thick disk. Chill one hour.